Many vehicles are designed to transport freight, goods, merchandise, personal property, and other large cargo. Often, these vehicles may be arranged to tow a towed vehicle, such as for example a trailer, by attaching the towed vehicle to the towing vehicle, such as through the use of some kind of hitch assembly. The towing industry has developed a number of methods and apparatuses for securing or engaging the towed vehicle to the towing vehicle, such as attaching a trailer to a pick-up truck.
There are many different types of trailer hitches in the art that may be attached to the towing vehicle in a variety of ways depending on the type of towed vehicle and towing vehicle involved. Some of the most common types of hitches include gooseneck, fifth wheel hitches, and rear mounted hitches. For example, towed vehicles may be connected to the towing vehicle by way of a hitch assembly that includes a ball hitch or member secured to the towing vehicle and a ball socket coupling mechanism on the towed vehicle that mounts over the hitch ball and thereby allows for the towed vehicle to pivot behind the towing vehicle.
Numerous types of hitch balls have been developed to be attached to the bumper or other rear portion of a towing vehicle. The towed vehicle may be equipped with a coupler mechanism to be attached to the towing vehicle by placing the coupler mechanism over the hitch ball and securing the coupler to the hitch ball. Similar apparatus using hitch receivers attached to the rear of the towing vehicle and drawbars may be used to secure towed vehicles to towing vehicles.
Some towed vehicles may be designed to carry heavy loads. Connecting such a towed vehicle to a ball hitch on a bumper of a towing vehicle, however, may be impractical. When a towed vehicle load is heavy as compared to the weight of the towing vehicle, applying the towed vehicle load generally over or in front of the rear axle of the towing vehicle may create a more desirable towing condition. In addition, such an arrangement may put much of the force of the towed vehicle load onto structural members of the towing vehicle, such as the frame, whereby the hitch ball may be located, for example, in the truck bed.
There are generally two arrangements for securing a towed vehicle to the bed of a towing vehicle—a fifth wheel hitch and a gooseneck hitch. A fifth wheel hitch may be utilized with towed vehicles having a king pin, which may be part of a pin box attached to the towed vehicle. Fifth wheel hitches may generally be attached in a bed of a truck or directly to the frame of the truck in a more permanent manner, whereby tools may generally be required to remove fasteners and other connectors to install or uninstall a fifth wheel hitch to the bed of a towing vehicle. A gooseneck hitch may be utilized with a towed vehicle having a gooseneck coupler that may generally be coupled to a hitch ball that may be located in the bed of the towing vehicle. The hitch ball may be permanently or removably secured to the frame or bed of the towing vehicle.
The towed vehicle coupler often has a socket portion that is sized and shaped to receive the hitch ball. The gooseneck coupler may engage the hitch ball to pivotally couple the towed vehicle to the towing vehicle. The gooseneck coupler to hitch ball connection may allow for relative movement between the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle as the towing vehicle makes turns, traverses uneven or rough terrain, and passes along inclining and declining roadways. The hitch ball member may be removed or lowered to a stowed position below the bed to ensure that the use of the bed is not substantially hindered by the presence of the ball.
The gooseneck coupler typically may include a manually operated clamping arrangement that may retain the ball member in the socket and, thus, the towed vehicle to the towing vehicle. This manually operated clamping arrangement, however, may be difficult to operate effectively. Therefore, there is a need for a gooseneck coupler with a clamping arrangement that is more efficient to use. Further, current manually operated gooseneck couplers include locking mechanisms that are cumbersome and may interfere with the operation of the telescoping tubes of a gooseneck coupler. Therefore, there is a need for a more efficient locking mechanism.
Additionally, prior art gooseneck couplers, so as to achieve adequate hitch ball retention, typically include sockets that are required to be of substantially the same depth as the height of the hitch ball. This causes the hitch ball to fit entirely within the socket. This may, therefore, result in the locking plate engaging the neck of the hitch ball, which may limit the angle of articulation of the gooseneck coupler. Therefore, there is a need for a gooseneck coupler that may be capable of overcoming these limitations.